Labornet Japan is a network of citizens, unionists, activists, scholars and others from all walks of life to share information especially about rights and struggles in and outside of Japan. Established in 2001, the group now has more than 500 members, and the membership is growing. The English site introduces some reports shared on Labornet Japan website and other sources outside of Japan.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Abe administration proposed a bill to
revise the temporary staffing services law to the current Diet session, aiming
for the enforcement in 2015. "Most regular workers will be replaced with
temps once the law is enforced," warned the guest speakers to the Labornet
TV program aired on Feb. 12. "Those who have jobs without fixed contract
terms won't be directly affected, but you will still be part of an evil plan to
pass a terrible society full of low-wage jobs and without job security on to
the forthcoming generations. Would you dare to do so?" stressed journalist
TOKAIRIN Satoshi. "Even now, female temp workers suffer from a variety of
serious sexual harassments. It is prohibited for temp agancies' clients to
interview candidates registered with agencies. However, in reality, future
supervisors interview those who are registered with temp agencies and select
the ones of 'their types.' Women are treated just like goods," said lawyer
ITAKURA Yumi (photo). Asked by the anchors what to do, Tokairin said we should
fight in solidarity. "Since all three national centers, Rengo, Zenroren
and Zenrokyo are strongly opposing the revision, we should get united despite
differences with respect to other issues," he pointed out. Itakura urged
unions to reform their approaches to gender. "A great majority of temp
workers are women, but most labor unions are ruled by men and unable to address
the temp workers issue effectively. It is necessary to integrate women into the
mainstream of labor unions," she said. Even the audience in the studio
joined the enthusiastic discussion by proposing a general strike. (M)Archive video (no subtitles)

Monday, February 24, 2014

Citizens' groups led by Japan Action
Resolution of the "Comfort Women" Issue staged protests against NHK
(Nippon Hoso Kyokai), Japan's public broadcasting station, in Tokyo on Feb. 1
and 12, demanding resignation of its new president MOMII Katsuto and two
nationalist governors, novelist HYAKUTA Naoki and philosopher HASEGAWA Michiko.

In the action held in the evening of Feb.
1, a week after the new NHK chief's first press conference where he made a
controversial remark on "comfort women," protesters handed a letter
to a staff member of the broadcaster's customers relations office NHK Heart
Plaza. According to a participant, the staff member was much more bureaucratic
than the real bureaucrats. " He identified himself only by his family name
and refused to tell us his full name or give us a name card, because, according
to him, he was not meeting with us as an individual. He said that all he would
do is to take the letter to the secretariat of the president and he had no
authority to say anything to us. He didn't allow our members who had cameras to
enter the room where we met and demanded that we leave as soon as the time
originally given had passed." On Feb. 12, some 80 protesters held a rally
in front of the main gate of the NHK HQs at the time when the executive board
members of the broadcaster weremeeting.
Among the rally participants, there were three people who formerly worked for
NHK as staff member or board member. Prior to the rally, representatives of
Japan Action Resolution of the "Comfort Women" Issue and three other
organizations met with staff members of Heart Plaza for half and hour and
handed a letter of protest signed by 62 civil groups. (By SATO Kazuyuki and A)

Hundreds of people
participated in protests staged across the country on Feb. 6 against the state
secrets law that was forced enacted on Dec. 6, 2013. The protests were
organized as the first of a serial actions to be held on the 6th
every month. In Tokyo, 300 citizens including many union members gathered in
front of the Diet building and expressed their anger and determination to fight
till the abolishment of the law through powerful chants. "It is reflected
in the large number of participants that the movement against the law has taken
root firmly in the society," said a member of the organizing commission.
In the rally held in a diet members office building later on the same day, a
multi-party Diet members team that visited intelligence agencies of European
countries and the U.S. in January reported on their trip. "In the U.S.,
CIA has built up a surveillance state by secretly spending $10 billion each
year since the 9.11, but, due to the negative impact, CIA's activities are
getting increasing scrutiny. On the other hand, Japanese government has just
decided to establish the equivalent of CIA in Japan. It is utterly
unacceptable. A country like the U.S.riddled with state secrets and wars is
definitely not the vision for Japan," said MIYAMOTO Takeshi of the
Communist Party in the report. (M)Photos

A contract worker was arrested in late
January for allegedly tainting frozen food with pesticide in a food-poisoning
incident occurred at a factory of a subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc.,
a major seafood processing company late last year. The suspect was reportedly
complaining about his wage and making efforts to get a regular worker status.
There is no doubt that he was dissatisfied with the working conditions at the
factory. Regrettably, even nowadays, some workers seem to be struggling in
severe conditions expressed in following remarks by Friedrich Engels: "In
poverty, workers have no other choices than starving to death, suicide or
crime"; "The first, most uncivilized and most ineffective resistance
by workers was committing crimes." However, I urge them not to make a
mistake in choosing ways of resistance. You cannot change the society with
crimes. Our slogans are: "Labor unions are the most reliable safety net
for workers!" and "Let's join a labor union to solve problems for
workers!" (excerpt)

* ISHIKAWA Genji is the president of Japan
Union, a vice president of National Union of General Workers Tokyo Tobu and the
executive director of Labor Consultation Center (a non-profit
organization)* Photo (the factory where
the food-poisoning occurred, taken from a TV news program)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education in
June last year decided that public high schools in Tokyo must not adopt the “Japanese
History Textbook” published by Jikkyo Shuppan, saying that it is improper.

The board said that the reason is with respect
to hoisting of the national flag and singing the national anthem. The textbook
describes the issue in part as “there is an action of forcing public officials
in some municipalities,” which is different from the position of the board.

This description seems to have irritated the board,
which continues to force to sing ‘Kimigayo’ , the national anthem, in the field
of education.

Consequently, none of about 200 public high
schools in Tokyo selected the textbook of Jikkyo Shuppan.

On February 7, a group of 67 teachers and
citizens filed a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court in demand for annulling the
board’s decision.

MASUDA Miyako, secretary general of the
plaintiffs, said, “Abe administration is going to reform the education system
in order to restore Japan into the prewar regime, making the Emperor as the
sovereign. The board plays a role as its vanguard.We want to stop the board’s action through
this trial by any means. ” (SASAKI Yumi)